Franxois  gustave dosmond and jean ferdinand rozxs



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

FRANQOIS GUSTAVE DOSMOND AND JEAN FERDINAND ROZES, OF AGEN, FRANCE.

PROCESS OF PRESERVI NG MEAT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 496,047, dated April 25, 1893.

Application filed August 13, 1892. Serial No. M3014. (N0 specimens.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that we, FRANooIs GUSTAVE DosMoND and JEAN FERDINAND ROZES, citizens of the French Republic, residing at Agen,

(Lot-et-Garonne,) France, have invented anew and useful Process for Preserving Meat and other Articles of Food, of which process the following specification contains a full, clear, and exact description.

The process forming the object of this invention for preserving meat and other articles of food or alimentary substances, is based upon the combined use of a vacuum and a gas produced by the calcination or burning of charcoal. The charcoal is calcinated or burned in a cast iron retort of any construction provided with a discharge pipe. At the beginning of the operation, the gases are at first set free in the air and are collected after having ascertained that a sample, taken on the water in a test-glass, burns without blowing up, for it is very important to eliminate as far as possible the oxygen which was in the retort at the beginning of the experiment. The mean composition of the gas which is then evolved from the retort is the following: carbonic acid, from eight to ten per cent; oxygen, traces; carbonic oxide,

from fifteen to twenty-five per cent. hydro-' gen, from forty-five to fifty per cent; in ethan, from thirteen to eighteen per cent; nitrogen, from six to eight per cent. It is to the presence of water in the charcoal that the production of this gaseous mixture is to be attributed.

It is well known in fact that the charcoal contains considerable quantities of water,

Varying from two to twenty per cent, according to various circumstances and mainly to the temperature at which it has been prepared. When the charcoal is highly heated, a portion of this water is evolved, but another portion reacts on the charcoal brought up to the red heat, as in the production of water-gas, according to the reaction. C+H O:GO+H which explains the formation of carbonic oxide and hydrogen, or according to the reaction. 2C+2H O:=OH +OO which explains the formation of methan and carbonic acid. A great portion of the water is, in fact, simply eliminated by volatilization; however, the

may therefore take place, even if a great portion of the water is eliminated by mere Volatilization.

The alimentary substances to be preserved, meat, fish, fowl, shrimps, butter, &c., are placed within cylindrical boxes terminated by rounded caps one of which forms a cover or lid. After having introduced the piece to be preserved, the lid is connected with the body of the box by a strip of tin the edges of which are then hermetically covered with a solder-coating. Through a lead tube soldered to the cover or lid a vacuum is created within the box; by means of a very simple set of cooks the gaseous mixture is admitted and brought up to a pressure of one atmosphere,-

a vacuum is again produced and the gas is readmitted, always at a pressure of one atmosphere. The lead tube soldered to the lid is then closed by means of a blow-pipe, the operation being completed. The excess of pressure of the gaseous mixture is for the purpose of permitting it to be readily ascertained whether the box leaks; and often in practice, it will be desirable to heighten the pressure up to three or four atmospheres in order to allow the preserving gas to penetrate in the interior of the substance to be preserved. The gases, before being injected in the boxes, pass into a brass refrigerator and from thence into a dabbler or washer containing common water wherein they are washed.

We are aware that attempts have been made with a View of preserving articles of food, either by carbonic oxide or by hydrocarbons, the carbonic oxide being obtained particularly by causing air to pass over incandescent charcoal. We do not claim any of these processes, our method consists in the use of a mixture of gases obtained by decomposing the water retained in the pores of the charcoal, as we have already stated. We therefore claim as our exclusive right, not the use of carbonic oxide or hydrocarbons, but the mixture of gases of which we have given the composition.

Having now particularly described and explained the nature of our said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we claim is- The described process of preserving meat and other alimentarysubstances, by exhausting the air from the vessel containing such substance, and introducing into the same un- FRANQOIS GUS'IAVE DOSMOND. JEAN FERDINAND ROZES.

\Vitnesses:

E. BRALEUS, EMILE CURBET. 

